Copperas Cove Police Lieutenant Martin Ruiz Honored After 28 Years of Service

CCPD's Training and Recruitment Lieutenant Martin Ruiz walked out of the Copperas Cove Police Department on Tuesday after 28 years, leaving behind a division he shaped for nearly a decade and a roster of officers and dispatchers whose careers he personally oversaw.

The Copperas Cove City Council Workshop served as the venue for Ruiz's retirement recognition, a formal acknowledgment of a career that began on April 7, 1997, when he joined CCPD as a patrol officer. He would go on to hold nearly every operational role the department offers.

Within 14 months of joining, Ruiz was assigned to CCPD's SWAT Team, serving from May 1998 through January 2002. He was promoted to Sergeant that November, later working as a Detective before taking on the role of Administrative Sergeant and Public Information Officer, a position that made him the department's primary liaison to press and public.

The most consequential chapter of his career began in October 2017, when Ruiz was selected to lead the Personnel and Training Division. For nearly seven years, he oversaw every new hire who came through the department's doors, shaping both the officers now working patrol shifts and the communications operators fielding calls across Central Texas. The City of Copperas Cove described his training programs as adaptive to changes in modern police work and called him "a knowledgeable, dependable, and respected leader."

His rank of Sergeant was formally reclassified to Lieutenant in October 2019, a structural change reflecting a broader reorganization of CCPD's command. The department today is divided into two major divisions under two Deputy Chiefs of Police: Uniform Services, covering patrol, SWAT, school enforcement, and the motorcycle traffic section, and Support Services, which includes criminal investigations, the organized crime unit, communications, records, and animal control.

Ruiz also earned a Master Peace Officer Certification through the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, the highest professional credential available to Texas peace officers.

His departure leaves the Personnel and Training Division without the institutional knowledge he accumulated across 28 years of patrol, investigations, public affairs, and recruitment work. That combination of experience across divisions is rarely concentrated in a single officer, and CCPD has not publicly detailed who will take over the role. The division's responsibilities, including onboarding new hires and coordinating officer development, will require continuity at a time when Central Texas law enforcement agencies face ongoing recruiting competition.

The City of Copperas Cove issued a formal statement at Tuesday's recognition: "On behalf of the City of Copperas Cove, we extend our sincere appreciation to Lieutenant Ruiz for his 28 years of honorable and dedicated service. We pray his next chapter will bring well-earned rest, new opportunities, and many great days ahead."

KWKT FOX 44 and KCENTV both covered the ceremony. CCPD can be reached at 254-547-8222.